Aso City

A road bad after every rain was cobbled.

Futae Pass Stones, Bungo Kaido

Photo by STA3816 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Kokuzo Shrine

The year after the fire, Hosokawa Tsunatoshirebuilt these plain-wood halls, a tablet records.

Standing north of Aso Shrine, it is known locally as the 'North Shrine' (北宮). The main hall and worship hall burned down in 1672, and a ridgepole tablet records that Hosokawa Tsunatoshi rebuilt them the next year. Made of plain zelkova (keyaki) wood, they bear intricate carving. The neighboring Kaminookura and Shimookura burial mounds (上御倉・下御倉古墳) are said to be tombs of the shrine's deities.

Rebuilt 1673 by Hosokawa Tsunatoshi
Plain zelkova wood
Prefectural Important Cultural Property (building)

02 ／ Tiger Dance of Aso

Performed with a lion's head, yet calleda tiger dance in deference to the lion dance.

The Aso tiger dance (阿蘇の虎舞), a prefecturally designated Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property, is passed down in six districts (成川・竹原・蔵原・狩尾・折戸・永草). It is performed with a lion's head, but out of deference to the lion dance offered at Aso Shrine, it is called a tiger dance, the city's cultural properties handbook records. Born of farming culture, it is also designated by the city in two more districts (古閑・小倉).

Prefecturally designated Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property
Six prefecturally designated districts
Two more city-designated districts (古閑・小倉)

03 ／ Hitaki Rite at Shimo Shrine

A girl warms the sacred object;residents tend the fire in turns, about two months.

At Shimo Shrine (霜神社), near Aso Shrine, this rite keeps the sacred object warm in prayer against frost. A girl called the 'fire-tending maiden' (火焚乙女) is chosen from the parishioner districts, and residents take turns tending the fire for about two months. In Aso myth, Kihachi's (鬼八) resentment brought frost damage to the people, and the deity Takeiwatatsu-no-mikoto later enshrined Kihachi and began the rite, it is said.

A girl, the 'fire-tending maiden', warms the sacred object
Residents tend the fire in turns for about two months
One of the 'Aso farming rites'

Living here

It borders eight municipalities, two of them in Oita.

about 20,000 people

The city was born on February 11, 2005, when Ichinomiya, Aso and Namino merged. Its area spans about 30km east to west and about 17km north to south. The terrain centers on the caldera around the five peaks of Aso, with the Aso valley (阿蘇谷), where flat land is plentiful, and the outer rim area surrounding it.

People living here: 24,930people
Area: 376.3km²
Households: 9,987households
Rent (average for rentals): 32,573yen
Healthcare: 4 hospitals ／ 19 clinics

Area and habitable land at the same scalee-Stat B1101 / B1103

Children waiting for childcare: —12 nurseries and similar
Home purchase subsidy: —
Average annual temperature: —

These 3 items are waiting on a nationwide data source. We do not fill them with estimates.

Shape

Borders 8 municipalities across 1 prefectures.

Aso City in Japan32.952°N 131.121°E

Territory of Aso City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

19.0km

Kumamoto Prefecture: 南小国町, 高森町, 南阿蘇村, 産山村, 菊池市, 大津町
Oita Prefecture: 竹田市, 日田市

Travel times per leg are not published by the municipality, so they are not shown.

Aso City isthis kind of town.

01The Bungo Kaido, a road Kato Kiyomasa developed in the Keicho era as the Higo domain's alternate-attendance route, is a nationally designated historic site spanning four areas of the city (車帰・的石・狩尾・一の宮町坂梨). Where volcanic-ash soil turned the road bad after every rain, stone paving was laid, starting with the Futae Pass section, which the city's cultural properties handbook gives as about 1.6km long and about 3m wide.
02Kokuzo Shrine stands north of Aso Shrine, and its grounds preserve the stump of the great cedar 'Teno no Osugi' (手野の大杉), formerly a national natural monument, which withered after Typhoon No. 19 of 1991. The 'Aso farming rites', a nationally designated Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property, are held at Aso Shrine, Kokuzo Shrine, Shimo Shrine and elsewhere, and Aso Shrine's Tatsukuri Festival includes the fire-swinging rite, in which bundles of reeds are set alight and swung.
03The Aso tiger dance is prefecturally designated, and the Hitaki rite at Shimo Shrine is one of the 'Aso farming rites'. The Nakae Iwato Kagura, offered at Ogi Shrine in Namino, consists of 33 pieces and is a nationally selected intangible folk cultural property.

See the town as it is now.

Instagram@asostagram ↗

Source: Wikidata (P2002, P2003, P2013, P2397)

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Aso City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗